


Immediate

by saltylikecrait



Series: Follows Soft the Sun [9]
Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Alternate Universe - Royalty, F/M, Prince Finn, Self-Acceptance, The Force
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-07
Updated: 2018-09-07
Packaged: 2019-07-07 08:22:15
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,081
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15904506
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/saltylikecrait/pseuds/saltylikecrait
Summary: “Are you finally going to let us help you?” he asks. And it’s been a long time coming. For months, he, Luke, Leia, Han, all of them have checked in on her, telling her they won’t press the matter, but that they really want to find a way to help her get her Force-sensitivity in check.





	Immediate

**Author's Note:**

> Posting this a little early because of planned AO3 maintenance. This isn't much of a Finn/Rey fic, but I do want to address some of Rey's issues with her Force-sensitivity that I established earlier in this AU because I think it needs to be done. To be honest, unlike how I write my longer works now, I didn't actually make a solid plan for a plot for this royalty AU. I just went along to see what I came up with.

Lunch is Rey’s favorite time of day. It gives her a chance to stop and take a break from the intensive work of gardening, but it also gives her the chance to spend time with Finn if he’s not busy.

She enters his study in one of the wings of the palace. Down the hall, through grand oak doors, is where his father’s royal office is. That’s where all the new laws and policies are signed into existence by the king. One day, Finn will spend his day sitting it that room and signing papers too.

Finn is not in yet, meaning he had an appointment to be at before he could meet her. He said that he was free at this time, so she assumes that he will be along shortly. In the meantime, she’ll grab a book off of one of his shelves – Finn is a sucker for fiction in the form of classic printed text and many tease him for it – and see if anything catches her eye for her to find on a datapad library later.

Her fingers skim across the spines of the books so neatly and lovingly arranged until she comes across one that looks worn and read over and over. She pulls the brown leather-bound book out of its place and investigates the cover.

 _Meditations,_ the cover reads, though the name of the author had long faded out. 

She randomly opens the book to a page and realizes quickly that this is a book of Jedi meditations.

_We who seek the Force are like silk being dyed._

_We immerse ourselves in the Force and we absorb the Force but our essential nature does not change._

_Like the silk, we are who we are and there is no reason to feel shame for that._

_We know who we are and we trust in the Force._

And suddenly, _finally,_ something clicks.

How many times had she tried to push the Force away from herself? Deny it? Hide it away? She recalls the first time she discovered it on accident, back on Jakku and about a year before she had met Han. Hungry, angry, and desperate after a day of bad scavenging, she had almost went back to her AT-AT with nothing to fill her stomach for the night. That was when she first discovered the Force; she had used it on accident to steal a portion from Unkar Plutt while he wasn’t looking, floating it to herself. She did not feel bad about what she did back then, but her discovery frightened her.

She had continued to hide it from the world until she accidentally broke a pipe in the _Millennium Falcon_ in frustration. Actually, she was lucky that Han was her employer at the time. He knew what was going on, and instead of being angry, he offered her help she wouldn’t take.

He had told Luke Skywalker, obviously, who then offered his own advice the first time they had met after her adoption. She worried if taking his help meant that she had to be a Jedi. It was a foolish assumption, now that she thought of it, but sixteen-year old Rey had finally found a stable life and worried that training with the Force would take that all away.

The incident in the garden made everything worse. For years, Rey had been comfortable with her abilities and thought she had enough control over them to keep them from causing trouble. She was wrong.

Leia and Finn had been helpful when she allowed them into the darkest part of herself. She wasn’t sure if either of them had ever had to deal with the same anger and frustration she had. Once, she had even thought to contact Ben Solo, knowing he has struggled with his own inner anger, to ask him about how he has kept it under control for all these years. Her hesitation and decision not to stemmed from the fact she really didn’t know him and in her mind, while she thought of Leia and Han as her parents, Ben had never come close to being considered brother.

Perhaps, she wonders, one reason the Force seems so impossible to control is because of what she thinks of herself. Like approaching an animal that senses fear and feeds off of it, the Force seems to be the most uncontrollable in moments of doubt and anger. Fear creates anger; she knows this well.

Maybe it is time for her to learn to accept herself as she is. Han, Leia, and Finn seem to have no problem doing this and they’ve shown her nothing but love and care. Now it is time for Rey to learn to love herself, Force-sensitivity and all.

Even if she uses the Force, she will always remain herself.

On Finn’s desk sits a vase of daisies she had cut and prepared for him earlier in the week. He loves it when she brings him flowers from the gardens and thinks they liven up the stuffy interior of the study. She looks at one of the daisies, studies the length of its stem and shape and concentrates.

One of the daisies lifts straight up from the vase and when the stem is clear of the glass rim, makes its way over to Rey. It wobbles on its path, but eventually she wraps her fingers delicately around the stem and lets the Force rest. She strokes the clean white petals of the flower as she sits down in Finn’s chair and thinks.

A sudden sound of singular clapping fills the room and Rey turns around with a startle to see Finn in the doorway with a beautiful grin on his face.

He holds out his hand, palm up, and Rey thinks she understands what he’s thinking. She tries the trick again with the daisy, this time floating it carefully over to his open hand. When he closes his hand around it, she breaks off her concentration and instead focuses on the smile he gives her as he approaches her by the desk.

“Are you finally going to let us help you?” he asks. And it’s been a long time coming. For months, he, Luke, Leia, Han, all of them have checked in on her, telling her they won’t press the matter, but that they really want to help her get her Force-sensitivity in check.

It’s hard for her to admit that she needs help, but Rey thinks she is finally ready.


End file.
